\nAt the link above is a story I just got from our friend Bob Foreman. The article he sent is from the Saturday paper, just after the Thursday surprise Atlanta viewers got when ‘Today In Georgia’ debuted in color, making WSB the first station in Georgia with live local color. They were also the first station here able to broadcast color and I think that ability goes back to around 1956. WSB was one of the original NBC affiliates on both the radio and television networks.<\/p>\n
I’ve had this photo for a long time of that first “colorvised” show, but never had a firm date or back up to the fact that WSB got the very first TK42. The story was, that RCA wanted to field test the new camera on ‘The Popeye Club’. It was the country’s top local kids show and RCA thought the colorful clothing of the 30 or so “clubhouse gang” members for each show would be a good color test.<\/p>\n
An RCA engineer came to Atlanta with the camera to set it up and tweak it, and was still doing that when the second one arrived in mid January. I think he stayed in Atlanta for about three months doing tests.<\/p>\n
Georgia legend Ruth Kent who hosted ‘Today In Georgia’ is seen here on that first day with some of the WSB management and engineering people. Notice the cameraman is not using pan handles, but the built in D handles (zoom and focus) on the back of the camera. That’s what they were designed for, but the ergonomic idea by our friend Harry Wright, at RCA, turned at to be a not so good idea after all. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee<\/p>\n